Depends on species of wood and how much sheen. We have very low sheen Brazilian Cherry (not Bellawood but that shouldn't be that different) and scratches don't show. We had a softer wood and they showed a lot. My neighbor has the same floor that we currently have and they have 4 dogs including a large lab. Same durability.

megaul,
First of all, I am a huge hardwood floor fan, we have had them(hickory) in our home for the last 14 years. We have also had a dog for most of those 14 years and yes, there are scratches from toenails. We have had the floors refinished once, a couple years ago and they look brand new. They didn't even look that bad before but DH wanted it done :) I think it is all a matter of what you consider "scratched up". If you get down on your knees and look closely you can see scratches but day to day we don't notice them and when we have new guests over, the first thing they rave about in our home are the floors!!

I'm so glad you asked this question since I've been wondering the same thing. Which species of wood would be more durable?

Laurie

I agree that the trick is the sheen. We have finished in place satin finish on oak. Since they just look kind of dull, you don't really notice the scratches. I have friends who had a high gloss prefinished floor and their dog ruined that finish pretty quickly.

It's not the wood that gets scratched, it's the finish...and most will do about the same against dog nails, dropped keys, etc.. We've had our solid Brazilian Cherry with the tough aluminum oxide several-layer finish in for about a week and there are already scratches, actually more like scratch-shaped dents, from the dog nails, where she turns the corner in a hurry to run up the stairs. I wouldn't have noticed, but DH is a bit obsessive about the new flooring and looks at it from all angles (to get the light on it just right) for new scratches or dings. It was the flooring dealer who pointed out that it's not the wood that is damaged, but the surface finish, and we did some testing, because we weren't sure we believed him, but he seemed to be right on.

We have quartersawn oak with a satin finish, and a large lab who does the 'Starsky and Hutch' routine around corners.

It's been 3 years and we can see some scratches if we get down to dog level, but they blend in with the wood and generally the floor still looks perfect. We would've been miserable with a shinier finish.

I have Brazilian Teak/cumaru and two dogs and I have some small scratches from them. I have three big scratches and they came from the vacumn cleaner beater bar, moving a chair that lost it's felt pad, and a piece of a broken coffee cup that got caught under the vacumn wheel. So really, the dogs are not really the problem.

I still love the wood floors (FYI, they are not in the kitchen but in the LR, DR and FR) with the scratches. It is kinda like a new car, once you get the first scratch it isn't that big of a deal.

I have 2 goldens and I have real wood, laminate and also painted flooring. I keep their nails trimmed and you cannot hear the click click click sound when they walk. When I hear that sound, I get out my clippers and the dremel.

Barb

We moved into a new house 3 months ago which has hardwood floors throughout the main living areas. We were hesitant to go with hardwood floors again after our last house because our 3 dogs did so much damage to the floors there but we really like the look of wood. We have been using Soft Paw nail covers on the dogs since the move and so far, so good. They get pretty expensive for 3 dogs and are somewhat a pain to keep up with but they are worth it for us. Our two older dogs are a less active (except when the doorbell rings) and the nail covers stay on pretty good...the younger dog is very active and we have to replace his pretty frequently. Every Sunday night is nail check and maintenance at our house! Sometimes they will leave a waxy type mark on the surface of the wood when the dogs do that same "Starsky and Hutch" routine around the corners but it wipes right off. Our last house had tons of scratches within the first week after we moved in with the dogs so the Soft Paws has made things much better this time...so far!

http://www.softclaws.net/

We put in unstained natural maple last year, and there are scratches and grooves from our JR Terrier's claws when he goes running and sliding around.

We put a satin finish down, and the combination of that plus the very light wood hides the scratches quite well. You have to look crosswise at the floor in just the right light to see them. And when you do, it's not that objectionable.

So, it seems that if you have a dog, you'll get scratches in the finish. If you don't have a dog, from what I'm reading you'll still get scratches. Interesting.

It makes sense to me that the color of the wood would also determine how much the scratches show, as well as the sheen. A darker color will show more than a lighter color?

Maybe we can get some additional comments.

We have Bellawood Brazilian Cherry. It is dark and very shiny. It shows every scratch, smear, smudge and drip mark.

We don't have a dog (just a cat) but I would venture to say that yes, a large dog with his nails extended would damage the floor.

I did some research on this topic and agree it depends to a large extent on the finish you use. We now have pine with a satin poly finish and the dogs have really made a mess of it. Our new floor will be stained rift and quartered oak with a tung oil finish. I've read a lot about tung oil finishes on floors and my GC has recommended it after I told him my concerns about the dogs.

We do not have Bella Wood floors. We do have hardwood throughout and a 40 pound dog who does not get her nails trimmed all that often (as I am a bad doggie mom). Our floor has a flat to satin finish and a dark stain. So far I haven't seen any scratches from the dog. Our floor however is "hand carved" and slightly distressed....so nothing really shows. One thing I did when shopping for floors...this may be uncouth...I discretely pressed my thumb nail into the wood samples. If my nail could easily gouge the wood I avoided it. I will say that I could easily gouge most samples. The floor we chose is oak-but I can't dent it with my nail-so far neither can the dog.

Wow, I am very surprised at the answers here. We had the all light colored oak (3 bedrooms/hallways/family room) refinished when me moved in our house (10 yrs ago) and have always had dogs. Large dogs (50lb+ each ~3 of them)

The majority of the house is fine...but like others said, around hall corners when they get excited they take off & do the "Scooby Doo"... The floors are scratched very badly. No, it is not the finish...it is the wood. Almost from day one after refinishing! I can not wait to get those floors replaced with something else...I just love the look of wood & was thinking of some kind of Pergo product ( saw a commercial with a large dog running across it w/o damaging it )

Until then, I try to keep the dogs in the tiled area of our home (kitchen/den/dining area) or outside.

Now I am wondering if we got a bad finish on our floors. I just thought it was a bad choice with dogs??? The finish is a satin...not high gloss...mind you it probably needs to be refinshed at this point, but I don't want to invest any more $$$$$ into it! Toddlers do not remember to close doors very well & it has been impossible to keep the dogs off that area 100%...and nail covers would not stay on these pooches...they run on concrete outside daily.

megaul, we don't have bellawood floors, but we do have hardwood floors and two dogs. Our floors are oak, which we refinished ourselves about 2 1/2 -3 years ago with Mixwax Early American stain (a medium brown) and 2 or 3 coats of a satin finish poly. (I'll check with my husband on how many coats). We have a beagle (app. 25 lbs) and a yellow lab (about 60-65 lbs now and growing- still a puppy). We've had the beagle for about a year and two months, and the lab for about 7 months.

The only scratches that go through to the wood on our floor are from my husband dropping his police flashlight on the floor, and were created P.D. (pre-dog). However, there are lots of little "scratches" (seems to be the best term) that I guess are just in the poly layer. To me, these are not at all noticeable until you get down on your hand and knees on the floor and look across it. In fact, that's how I first noticed them when I was retrieving a dog toy from under the couch.

To me, these "scratches" are a sort of patina for the floor, and I don't mind them at all- in fact, I kind of like them. I'm still planning on wood for our new house, and that includes the kitchen. Now, if you are someone who's really obsessive about everything being perfect, maybe wood is not for you. But what bothers me a lot more than the scratches is all the lab hair on the floor. :-)

I can take some pictures of the floor to post if you're interested.

We have Bellawood natural red oak - not the select, and a 100 lb golden retriever. The floors have been installed in our hallway and dining room for 4 years now. Yes, there are scratches, but they're not too noticeable. The natural oak with all the variations makes a big difference. I think if we'd gone with the Select oak (I think that was the top of the line), the scratches would have been much more noticeable.

bumping because I'd really like to see fightoverfinishes floors :)

Laurie

I appreciate all the input and observations on this subject. You've given me a lot to think about. It's really a tough call.

I'm with you. Laurie...pictures would be great.

My gut reaction...my kitchen re-do should be visually pleasing, durable, and require little maintenance for the long haul. I'm only a few years from retirement and don't want to spend it cleaning or fretting over the kitchen.

And, with that, another question comes to mind which I will place on a separate thread: Pros and cons of textured ceramic floor tile vs smooth. (just in case I chicken out or think better of the wood.)

So many decisions for one little kitchen! I can't imagine building a house!

Re: ceramic-- TEXTURED.

My textured, through-body porcelain [unglazed] offers very good grip when wet. My sister's glazed ceramic with a tiny amount of texture is awful-- you practically need hockey skates to mop the floor.

Nothing really sticks to either one, the texture doesn't hurt in that regard. Cleaning is easy, rarely involves more than hot water, maybe a tiny bit of grease cutting soap.

Look for a CoF number on tile. Stands for 'Coficient of Friction', measures slip resistance. Separate numbers for wet and dry. Higher numbers are better, wet is more important to most of us.

Almost always with any wood floor it is the denting from doggies' nails and not actual scratching that you see. However, if it is an inferior finish, then that scratching usually is noticed as fine white lines at first and then as dark lines after they get filled with microscopic dirt particles.

I've had 2 dogs for 15 years and have had oak and maple floors. The oak seems to show scratches less but I think that's more to do with the heavy graining.

Another thing to consider is where you put the water dish. I put mine inside the bathroom on tile - I'm worried about water pooling on the wood.

Our floor is a Bruce solid hardwood with aluminum oxide finish. Two Golden Retrievers, 90 and 75 lbs. We've lived here 5 years and the floors are in terrible condition. Here is how I describe terrible: bare wood in the places that get the most toenail action, beveled edges with no finish, crud down in the grooves between the beveled edges (I'll NEVER have beveled edges again!), many, many visible nail impressions in the finish/wood.

A refinisher said the nails cause impressions in the wood, not necessarily a scratch in the finish. But, the finish has come off in places. The refinisher also said that the aluminum oxide finish is very difficult to sand off, requiring many changes of the sanding pad and more work than removing polyurethane. This, of course, means it costs more to refinish.

After reading these posts (and many, many others) I believe the wood itself, in combination with the finish, is the key. Even though these Bruce floors are oak, it is my opinion that it is a "soft" oak - my guess, and that is all it is, is the wood is from young trees.

We have the Bruce oak hardwoods, too and ours is pretty scratched up. Especially by the front and back doors. We had a 100lb rottweiler since before we moved in 6 years ago (floors were new then) and now an 18 month old 100lb goldendoodle. We will refinish the floors if we sell but for now, they aren't THAT bad and there doesn't seem to be any point in refinishing them as long as we have a large dog. We ripped out the hardwood in the kitchen though and went with real slate. LOVE the slate. It's definitely textured, nothing shows up on it, and though it can be scratched, it just gets buffed out with a good mopping. I love the wood floors but the slate is so much easier to keep nice!

Our prefinished floors are a satin plus a bit in sheen and show scratches more than the true satin finish on the site finished oak. Their nails have dented the wood for sure and scratched the finish, BUT it doesn't bother me. I know wood scratches and dents. If that is something that would bother you do consider tile or laminate.